Like War…

The snow was falling today and winter still grips the Salt Lake Valley firmly and squeezes its residents yet this last week I felt the first rumblings of a far offspring, spring which will be like no other spring to me in my 62^nd year. But the snow is falling today and cold days are forecast for all next week. I must be patient the spring will come. Of course, today is Saturday and I'm off for the weekend but I took two days of annual because I thought I would lose them if I did not. I found out that I would not lost these days but decide to go ahead and take the days after Liz e-mailed me that the days were approved so yesterday, Friday I was off and I shall be off next Monday as well. Next week is my last week on the state clock at 211. This is where and perhaps I'll get into more of that later.

I'm a little spooked with retirement afraid I will lose ambition to do anything so I used or I'm going to use these two days of Annual as a dry run to my days retirement. I have had a task on my shoulders for the past couple of months and that was I needed to replace my Social Security card lost somewhere in the last couple decades. It seems I really do need to have access to my Social Security card for a host of reasons and one of the is to formally access pistol retirement gig. So I figured one of the things I would do yesterday was to get my Social Security card, or at least begin the process.

I felt good, dressed in bundled up as I left the house for my adventure in the community. I was in my power chair which meant I was on public transit which is okay, I had the time and the commitment. I stopped in at the bank cashed my second to last mileage check and headed to Social Security and our community. Now this was taken very little time had I just driven over there in my power chair but quite honestly a little scared that I would not have enough juice in the chair to make it over there back so decided to use the bus to go the short distance. This should have been a short distance short time trip but that was not a short trip, of course. And having to go to the bus station take the train back one stop and get on another busand then go forward to the intersection close the Social Security. The day was relatively warm at times, when the sun would break through and I just reclined my chair,listen to NPR, and waited. 45 min. later I was at the Murray office of Social Security Administration. I don't know what I was thinking but was blown away when I open the door and rolled inside. There were masses of people all over the office. Asians, Mexicans, Anglos, lower-class, middle-class and upper-class. Much like the DMV everyone had to go to Social Security Administration sooner or later. There was a number machine I have fast food joints are you pick the ticket and wait for your meal to be served and you have to pick up when your number is called. So to the Social Security administration my number was 299 and Social Security serving was 250 or something like that but I got there. I was okay just more waiting I can do this. I was a little uneasy because my energy level indicator on my wheelchair was in the showing low power levels and I didn't know if I was able to give back or not to import of origin. Luckily I always go with my traveling battery charger. The mass of people in this public service agency was pretty much shepherded by one individual with a gun on his hip a young baldheaded, nice-looking Rent-A- cop who kept eyeing over the population. Any time the mass would search in front of the front doors he would walk over us sure shoo them away should– – he even escorted anyone using their cell phone. That was the first time I'd seen anything like that, a cell phone? I guess I had some to do a security should be thankful.

You know he said with a group of people long enough you become identified with that group even though you would rather not be. So in my group there was a young lady looking terribly out of place, to individuals what looked like a mom and her old teenage daughter who I assume was from the west side – – they had that look in the mom was a motormouth talking bad about friends family situations happening in her universe. She must've been in her late 40s probably cute one time it snowed like an attractive door stop at a blue-collar bar. Behind me they were to guys, older wearing nice casual close who was obvious had not known each other until their meeting at Social Security. The right the Republicans are Utah Democrats who spent hours waiting swapping work stories and bemoaning the number of minority folks in the room. I then found the plug-in I could reach sat a few feet away from the bathroom door. The bad thing about my handy dandy charger is that it charges a very slow rate but still charges and eventually charged enough to save my life.

Like war waiting at the Social Security office is characterized by long periods of waiting punctuated by brief moments of bureaucratic chaos and so it was when I was called to the service window. I was just happy I was close to being done. The woman behind the desk was very nice, overweight, a true bureaucrat servicing the masses, she reminded me of my job but I use the telephone she has to actually talk to people face-to-face, the same people I know who call me day in and day out. At least I don't have to have an armed guard wandering around shooting people away from the front door. The lady bureaucrat dressed in blue admired my notebook and told me about her new Kindle and we shared a moment of electronic bliss – – we shared 5 min. and I was processed out with the receipt saying I would have my new card in two weeks. Not yet quite retired but get the feeling of how things are going to be...